Quotes of the week, June 21, 2007

Here are some of the notable quotes from around Major League Baseball this week:
"My wife and I have been before, but our three girls never have. Pretty good timing, huh?"

-- Marlins pinch-hitter Jason Wood announcing plans to take his family to Disney World the day after he hit a game-winning thee-run homer.
(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

"Everybody knows I throw hard. You can hear the buzz when I come in. You know they're waiting for that first pitch and the reading on the radar, and all of that works to my advantage.
"But I've been trying to plant another seed as well, drop some 85-mile-per-hour hammers, some changeups as well. There's more than one way to create a buzz, and I won't always be able to throw 100."

-- Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya on how radar gun readings influence both the crowd and the game.
(Los Angeles Times)

"It's just nice to be able to play in all the ballparks. I missed a couple. I missed Minnesota because I was hurt. I didn't play in Detroit. I wish I had the opportunity to play there, but I know I'm not retiring, so my chance might come."

-- Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Masumi Kuwata, on getting his team out of an eighth inning jam on Tuesday night as the Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki waited on deck. Suzuki was left waiting on deck when Kuwata got out of the jam.
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

"Compared with when I saw him in Japan, he looks very comfortable. We need to get a hit off him there but, watching him come out from the bullpen, half of me feels like he's going to get us out."

-- Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche, on his decision to give himself a spiked haircut just before the Pirates visited Seattle.
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

"A baseball field's a baseball field. No difference."

-- Cincinnati Reds rookie pitcher Homer Bailey, on starting a game on the road after his first two starts were at home.
(Cincinnati Enquirer)

"It's surreal staring at them on the other side of the field, but it's something I'll have to get used to."

-- Former Cincinnati Reds and current Oakland A's pitcher Chris Denorfia, on seeing his former team for the first time this week when the Reds visited Oakland.
(Cincinnati Post)

"You need to respect your elders -- don't you feel bad that you've got two guys older than you playing in the field and you're not?"

-- Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.,, asking teammate Scott Hatteberg about his role as the team's designated hitter in Oakland while Griffey and Jeff Conine were both playing in the field. Griffey, 37, is 23 days older than Hatteberg while Conine is 41.
(Cincinnati Post)

"I've already felt 10 times more comfortable over at first than I did in the outfield. I felt comfortable in the outfield, but I'm not a natural outfielder. I just feel playing first is more of a natural position."

-- Kansas City Royals rookie Billy Butler, on his recent stint at first base. Earlier in the year, Butler had been playing most of his innings in the outfield.
(Kansas City Star)

"Just relief."

-- Detroit Tigers first baseman Sean Casey, on the feeling he had after hitting his first home run of the season on Tuesday night in Washington.
(Detroit Free Press)

"I think we've tried to take into account that he has gotten older, and Craig's gotten more realistic about that too. Even up to last year Craig resisted days off. But one of the things that makes these guys great is they don't give in to fatigue, they don't give in to pain, they don't give in to injury. They tend to think they can be just as good now as they ever could be."

-- Houston manager Phil Garner commenting on 40-year-old second baseman Craig Biggio being more accepting of days off this season.
(Houston Chronicle)

"He doesn't try to do too much," shortstop Michael Young said. "He comes to the park and works hard and is a professional. He's great in the clubhouse. I expected that. But he has a real mental toughness and confidence. That's something all of us can learn from."

-- Texas shortstop Michael Young on teammate Sammy Sosa and how the slugger works hard every day when he comes to the ballpark.
(Dallas Morning News)

"This was the best game we've played in a while. It's good to get everybody going. We did everything right tonight and that's what you want to see."

-- New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, commenting on the team's last trip to Colorado five years ago, before the Rockies started to store baseballs in a humidor to counter the affects of the thin air in Denver. New York scored 41 runs in the three-game series while the Yankees and Rockies combined for a total of 70 runs.
(New York Daily News)

"We ran him out there three days in a row, but [Sunday] we warmed him up very slowly. There are a lot of factors we take into consideration. In talking to him, he's thrown a lot less than he has in Japan, and from listening to him talk, when he pitched there, they warmed up two innings. Days off, they threw a complete side. That's just the culture. He's not doing this here. We're trying to maximize the innings, but I don't feel like we've overused him. I think he feels better at this juncture of the season here than last year where he was."

-- Boston manager Terry Francona commenting on reliever Hideki Okajima, who was not available to pitch Monday after appearing in three straight games, and the amount of work he is getting this season for the Red Sox.
(Boston Globe)